Hellooooo December... Good Tidings! Hold on...alright seriously how is it already December? And what happened to the fall? In, like, the blink of an eye we went from this:
and this
and this
and this...
to THIS!
AND THIS!!
AND THIS!!!
Well at least we've still got the holidays to look forward to...wait a tick, we've already blown past one of those too! What is going on around here? Why is time speeding by like a Tour de France Peloton? This is no joke, even Hanukkah began early this year. At least we've got 79,043 years before that happens again. What are we going to do about this whole time-flying thing though? Oh well, same old story, but how was your Thanksgiving by the way? We hope it was festive and joyful, and we hope your Hanukkah is festive and joyful too as it is still underway at the time of this writing.
Festive and joyful, festive and joyful....cold weather always brings the Madison Bicycle Shop morale just down, down, down, and then down some more...but that's exactly how we've learned to combat the pull--by getting festive and joyful! Read on to see how our guide could help you too!
ACHIEVING JOYFUL FESTIVENESS:
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
FOR THE COLD AND DEPRESSED SMALL TOWN BICYCLE SHOP
Step 1. String up your awesomely old-school Christmas lights.
Step 2. Break out your A Charlie Brown Christmas replica Christmas tree and place it upon your Bontrager saddles kiosk. Swaddle its base in a length of mechanic's towels from your Small Engine Repair Shop to approximate a rather convincing analog for Linus van Pelt's iconic security blanket.
Source Material:
Step 3. Place your little sweater moose in the front window.
Step 4. Direct his irresistibly beckoning little sweater moose gaze into the current of sidewalk foot-traffic.
Step 5. Hire an elfin Barista for the holiday shopping season and position her atop your coffee station (e.g., The Piccolo Cafe).
Tip: If you generally value your sleep, do not engage in prolonged, direct eye contact with the aforementioned elfin Barista.
Step 6. Make arrangements for SANTA CLAUS (What??? YES!) to make an appearance at your magical workshop on Saturday, December 7th 2013 from Noon till 2pm. Make sure that he will be available for wish-list confirmations and photo opportunities with the good* children of the area. Remind your customers to bring their cameras for prime moment-capturing.
*Naughty children also welcome but Madison Bicycle Shop cannot guarantee an absence of coal in the stockings of anyindividual in attendance. Final internal coal-to-gift ratio of any stocking is subject solely to contract with K. Kringle Inc. pending completion of thorough stocking-bearer behavior review for calender year 2013.
Step 7. Establish an exclusively designated yuletide sitting device for Mr. Claus and ensure that it is appropriately adorned in accordance with his specifications and level of Christmas Spirit. Outfit device with a visual reminder to customers of his visit which will take place on Saturday, December 7th 2013 from Noon till 2pm. Visual reminder should subsequently remind customers to bring their cameras along with them to the event.
Step 8. Offer Free Holiday Lay-A-Way and Free Shipping!*
*We will gladly store any gift until 2pm on December 24th with a 25% deposit and we are able to offer free shipping on most orders over $50.00.
Step 9. Put your Santa belly basket barrel on your sales counter and fill it with decorative, bicycle sized bags that make great camouflage for big ol' bike-shaped gifts.
If you are Ebenezer Scrooge, skip steps 10 and 11 and proceed immediately to step 12. If you are not Ebenezer Scrooge, disregard directions in bold above and continue on to step 10.
Step 10. PUT 'EM ON SALE!
Step 11. PUT A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF ON SALE TOO!
We've made your holiday shopping easy by reducing our top selling
bicycles below any competitor's pricing. If you find a better price
within 25 miles of our store and it is in fact the same exact product we
will match the price. We will also accept any competitor's coupons. If
you are not satisfied with our selection or reduced holiday prices, you
may reduce the price of any bicycle in the Trek collection by 10%.
*The fine print: No combining coupons. While supplies last. Valid until 12/24/13.
If you're not Ebenezer Scrooge, congratulations! You're all done!
If you are
Ebenezer Scrooge, first of all you're not even supposed to be reading
this, but whatever, we expected as much, come on now, move along, go on
to step 12.
Step 12. FOLLOW THIS GHOST!
So that's about it! "The most wonderful time of year" is well underway and the shop is looking real good:
It's a shame how all the excitement of Halloween just drops right off the very next day isn't it? Even though it's merely the morning after, if you're real Halloween fanatics like we are you probably don't even have that much candy left over! Thanksgiving is still weeks away, it's a dreary, dark and stormy day, and there just doesn't seem to be anything worth getting excited about...but fret not faithful reader...your bike is always there for you!
Far too many people pack their bikes away at the first scent of autumn in the air. Their poor bikes have to wait around unhappy and unused for months on end, but this doesn't have to be the way! As long as the roads and/or trails are relatively clear, you can ride your bike in total comfort all year long and even when those roads and trails are packed with snow and ice, you can keep right on riding in the comfort of your home!
Just a little drop in what you would consider to be ideal riding temperature can turn a blissful ride into full-on grimacing, shivery torture, but the apparel wizards at Bontrager have you covered! With a little
tweak here and there to what you would normally wear on a ride, you can keep on pedaling happy much much deeper into the year than you ever have before--not to mention look really cool while doing so!
Check this stuff out!
GRRRR! I'm a weird and scary Balaclava!
(Trust me I look much better on an actual human's head. And I'm super warm too!)
Windproof booties!
Thermal tights!
Men's and Women's Thermal Jerseys and Jackets!
Gloves for all seasons!
And that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as what Bontrager offers for cool, cold, wet and even FREEZING riding conditions. We're gonna just go ahead and say it right here right now: BONTRAGER IS THE BEST CYCLING CLOTHING MONEY CAN BUY. If you can dream up a piece of biking clothing, Bontrager probably already has it available. Quite literally from head to toe, Bontrager provides the very best in temperature regulation, the very best fit for the body position and movement of riding a bike, and best of all, they offer the very best warranty in the industry. Try any piece of Bontrager clothing for an entire month, use the heck out of it, see if it doesn't grow on you. If you aren't deeply in love with it after 30 days, we'll take it back in exchange for something else or even a full refund.
Check out Bontrager's full line by visiting that section of our website by clicking right HERE!
Now moving on to riding your bike in your house...what? You mean like an exercise bike? One of those weird butter churner looking things with the handles and the big noisy fan? Nope, we're talking about riding your actual street bike fast and hard yet uber-conveniently in the comfort and privacy of your very own home. You might be surprised at how many people have never heard of this practice, and even among those who have, almost nobody knows what to call the devices that enable you to do it. Most people say, "those things that let you ride your bike in your house". Well they're called "trainers". Pretty cool and simple right? Stop by our store, ask us about a "trainer" for your house and we'll know exactly what you're talking about, no worries.
This is a trainer:
and here is a bike in a trainer:
See how it doesn't take up all that much more room in your crib than your bike already does?
At the Madison Bicycle Shop we endorse CycleOps trainers because CycleOps trainers are simply awesome. They lift your rear wheel off the ground, holding it up securely by its axle. Then you tension a roller against your back tire, get in the saddle and pedal away! The overall feeling is very similar to actually riding on the street and you'll never lose the familiarity that you've built up with your bike (namely its saddle) over the warmer months. Plus, you can ride your bike while watching TV or reading a book. The tech level on trainers goes about as high as you can imagine. Some trainers can dial in your prescribed power output and take you along predetermined workouts and output levels. There are even software programs that you can link up to your trainer and go for virtual reality cyber rides. The cost of such setups can get into the thousands when you consider the flat screen monitors and computing power required, but you can also get rolling on a totally decent CycleOps trainer for as little as $160.
The difference between all the different types and price points of CycleOps trainers is basically the overall ride feel that the type of resistance on a particular trainer provides. There's fluid (the smoothest), wind, and magnetic resistance. Check out this video from CycleOps:
This year there's also the Silencer Direct Drive Mag trainer that gets rid of the use of your rear wheel all together for a super stable and whisper quiet ride!
No matter which model you choose, as long as you already like your bike, with a CycleOps trainer underneath you when the weather's real bad, you're gonna be a real happy biker.
Check out the indoor training section of our website right HERE!
So this month we finally get to
tell you all about that exclusive Trek event that we hinted at back in
August when we first found out that we'd be in attendance. It was
called Trek University on Campus and a very tired Sandie and
Peter returned from it just last Friday. It was billed as three days of
unprecedented access to the heart of Trek, its headquarters, its
employees, its bikes--and it certainly lived up to the invitation.
Come along for a little tour of all that they saw and did out there!
Our story begins with a direct flight from Newark, New Jersey to Madison, Wisconsin...
But
before we get too far underway, did you know that the interior of
Newark airport has become a haven for chilled-out pigeons? Here's a
shot that Peter took of the pigeon that had been just chillin' under the
seat across from him at the gate...
...just strolling around picking up Cinnabon bits like gate A27 is just the hippest place to be. We saw another one down at baggage claim on the way back! Haven't seen this phenomenon elsewhere. What's with this pigeon invasion? What's going on here? Anywho...
We landed in Madison (having traveled from Madison to Madison would be the little joke of a lot of conversations over the next three days) and were whisked away by bus to our hotel. After checking in we registered with Trek in one of the conference rooms where we were generously treated to armfuls and bagfuls of awesome new Bontrager gear almost conveyor belt style just like celebrities at one of those awards shows pre-parties. After that, we pretty much only had a few minutes to kind of glance at our rooms and dump our stuff before we were back on the bus and heading off to have dinner at the private home of John Burke...
...as in THE John Burke, the really really nice guy whose Dad co-founded Trek in 1976, who currently runs the whole show. It says a lot about a guy when he's willing to welcome 250ish near strangers (bike weirdo near strangers) over to his house for beer and tacos like it's no big deal.
As we approached, the cynics among us expected to roll up on some kind of ostentatious mansion, but were instead welcomed into a pretty handsome but modest old home, tastefully decorated with some real choice cycling memorabilia (and there were some pretty choice Treks hanging up in the garage too).
As we gathered out back for the festivities that would ensue, the desire was there to turn around and snap a few pics of the house and Facebook our bike buddies back home or something like that, but the respect for our host's privacy prevailed and we settled on a nice shot of the sunset over Lake Mendota instead.
After we'd spent some time mingling with all the other bike shop people from around the country and select Trek employees, Mr. and Mrs. Burke made the rounds and chatted with each of the little cliques that had developed around the property. Just as with most Trek events, there were a lot of Wisconsin based micro brews involved and instead of taking this opportunity to deliver important suggestions straight to the CEO or possibly receive some key bike biz wisdom, we talked about Wisconsin vs. New Jersey and how while Peter lives in "Sopranos New Jersey", Sandie's more country-ish town looks quite a bit like what we'd seen so far of America's Dairyland. Mrs. Burke and Peter then bonded over the fact that both of their old homes have little basement rooms that were once used as coal chambers back in the day. Finally the short conversation came to a close with a quick discourse on how and why freshwater is better than saltwater, but hey we were all having a good time and that's what it was supposed to be all about, right?
As we leaned deeper into the night, we broke off and became better acquainted with the sub groups that we would spend the rest of the trip with. Then we ate some cookies. After the cookies, we found our way back to the buses that took us back to the hotel. Just as each following night would end, this first night ended with an after party in the hotel lounge that carried on far, far too late for our overwhelmed bartender, but to her credit she single-handedly handled the onslaught of bike weirdos with amazing poise and skill.
At 6:45 the next morning, let's repeat that, at 6:45 the next morning we were back on a bus heading out to Waterloo (pop. 3333) where Trek's offices and factory are located. When we got there we were treated to a hot breakfast in the parking lot.
Here's a very important shot of the meal tent and the food queue for posterity:
Afterwards we broke off into groups. Some of us went off to ride bikes at our leisure for 4 hours while the rest of us attended the lectures, Q&A sessions and lab tours. After lunch it would switch and the next day was in turn a switcheroo of the previous one, so by the end of the trip we all had an even amount of access to everything being offered.
Here is a picture of every size of every one of the best, most interesting, most talked about bikes that Trek has for 2014 just lined up and ready to ride whenever and wherever you want to ride.
Some of the best road riding pretty much in America can be had by simply turning right out of Trek's parking lot. Trek's employee's have access to this stuff day in and day out and that's how pretty much everyone employed there spends their lunch hours. They have bike storage and locker rooms on site and little reminders to "log your miles" are posted up all over the place inside the building.
For you mountain biking fans, Trek owns something like oh, 10 billion acres of wilderness across the street from their Waterloo facility where they have established a network of private world class trails where all their pro riders come to train and test their products and skills. There's singletrack, fire roads, North Shore style ramps and teeter-totters, a cyclocross sand pit, you name it, it's there. If you think it's missing something and tell somebody at Trek about that something that's missing, they'll probably build it in no time. It's very cutely called "The Farm" and yup we had access to all that too!
Oh, and here's a picture of a Trek truck because, well, it's pretty cool:
While waiting for one of our classes to begin, we snapped these shots of Trek's newly redecorated front entrance...
These walls used to be festooned with all the different race winning bikes of a particular Tour de France victor but sadly all of those historic bikes are now just simply tucked away somewhere. The new look tells the tale of Trek from its beginning to present day.
The classes that we took weren't exactly picture worthy, just some power-point presentations and different speakers engaging with us in little meeting rooms. The topics covered: Women's Specific Design, Road, Mountain, Pavement and Wheels. Just little sessions to get us up to speed on the latest and greatest. What was really pretty neat though was how they actually shortened the original lengths of their presentations to allow for us to ask questions and make suggestions. We were constantly being begged by the product managers and even the designers themselves to gripe at them and let them have it. They kept telling us how much they loved our various complaints and how hungry they were for them. Trust us, there's no other bike company that welcomes our aggravated ventings more than Trek does.
Let's move on to some more of the really cool stuff!
Here are a few shots from "The Race Shop":
The Race Shop is basically a pro mechanic's dream shop. It's where Trek's top mechanics build up all of the Factory Team's bikes and ship them out to events all over the world. Every single high end tool and component that you could ever want is in here and there's plenty of space and light to get whatever kind of job you're doing DONE! And here's what all the bike people in the picture above are looking at...
...some of Trek's current top rider's very own frames. Note Katie Compton's blue and white "Crockett" cyclocross bike and Jens Voigt's Deutschland themed masterpiece.
As far as Trek's test lab (where all of their frames, components and wheels are subjected to excruciating looking torture) and the carbon lab (where Trek's carbon bikes begin as little scraps of carbon fiber and end up as the best frames in the world) we don't have any pictures or videos to show you because security and secrecy during our particular visit was somewhere between Lockheed's Skunkworks and Area 51. The carbon frame building process is so guarded that our smartphones were threatened with confiscation if they were to even creep up out of our shirt pockets! But we really were privy to some exclusive access this time. We got to see the frozen rolls of carbon come out of their freezer, get cut into lengths that are then subjected to their first lay up, the high tech rolling razors that cut out their highly specific shapes, the workers setting them into their molds, the lugs getting glued together, the completed frames getting baked, filled and sanded...everything that goes into making a Trek carbon frame right up to the paint job...and that's what brings us to PROJECT ONE...Trek's most amazing customization program. With Project One, you can basically build the bike of your dreams (as long as your dream is one of about 36 sextillion possible color and parts combos) and have it shipped to our shop for final assembly after having waited for no longer than a month's time.
There's a little sneak peek of what Project One offers hanging up in the main lobby...
...but it doesn't hold a candle to this promotional video:
whoa...nice right?
Here's another more in depth look at the Project One building process:
simply amazing...
To help spread the word about Trek's Project One program they built themselves an amazing transforming truck that has been touring the country and may be coming to the Garden State pretty soon too!
Check out the superbad custom Trek grille on that beast!
This thing is no Oscar Meyer mobile that's for sure!
And here are a few shots of the Project One paint lab in action!
There's someone's Project One bike getting finished up right there!
Towards the end of our seminars we were treated to a demo of Trek's new Precision Fit system and their high tech saddle pressure tests, which were pretty eye opening:
In real time we were able to watch what our test rider's saddle was going through and how extensively Trek researches saddle tech before coming out with a new product for a specific type of riding. Very awesome indeed, but let's get back to the parties!
On night two we were treated to BBQ at a crazy local ballpark where there were all sorts of games and prizes. Tricycle races, sack toss, klunker toss, even a mechanical bull...
These crazy Wisconsinites do not mess around when it comes to throwing a shindig!
Sandie of course took on every challenge and won some more swag as a result:
The third and final night of partying was a bonfire and night ride at the aforementioned "Farm" just down the road and across the street. We would find out later that this is how every Wednesday night ends for those lucky peeps out at Trek!
Here's a shot of the citronella torch lined walk up to "The Farm":
and here's what we found at the end of it...
Entertainment for the night was provided by the wait what? The Grammy nominated band Aaron Williams and The Hoodoo!?!? They were pretty cool, bluesy, Stevie Ray Vaughn influenced guys who put on a good show. If you're ever throwing a party in Wisconsin and you need some bluesmen at your event be sure to contact them via their website by clicking right HERE!
Here they are playing with another beautiful sunset as a backdrop (and that's our new friend Chris from Iowa chugging some conveniently named "SunDrop" soda in the foreground).
Here they are from behind and at night in case you were wondering what that looked like:
and here's some fire...
Fire!
FIYAHHH !!!
fire!
ahhh....fire.
and so ended our final night amongst the bike people.
Wrapping up, Trek's facilities are really nice and all...
...but there is a bit of a "middle of nowhere" feel to the place. Our only complaint if you could call it that would be that we didn't have any free time (heck we didn't really have any sleep time) to check out the truly amazing city of Madison where we were housed just a half hour away. The closest we came to exploring it was looking at it quickly through bus windows and rifling through our hotel's directory where we found a couple of ironic ads:
And even from our bus window vantage point you could tell that Madison is a premiere bicycle friendly city. You really can't drive through it for more than 10 seconds with out coming upon a decked out veteran bicycle commuter as evidenced by Peter's 30 seconds of bus window photography on the way back to the airport on the morning of day four:
Then again, isn't the sign of a good trip to a good town that you leave it only wanting more?
Well that's it folks! That was our trip to Waterloo. We've come to the end of our story. Roll credits.
Hey, if this were actually made into a movie wouldn't it be funny if the song that played during said credits was this particular selection from everyone's favorite Swedish palindrome?
Thanks for reading/looking/watching! Until next time! Happy Riding!
